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Synopsis

This is another in our series of UK directorial debuts, this time for Tina Gharavi. She was exiled from Iran in 1979 and has been making acclaimed documentaries since 2001, mainly on immigration, equality and diversity. This, her first full feature film got her a BAFTA nomination for Outstanding debut by a British writer, director and producer.

The film begins in Tehran in 2001, but Nasrine has a run-in with the morality police there who do not like her ‘free-spirited ways’. Her father decides to send her, with her brother Ali, to England for her own safety. After suffering the fears and discomforts of illegal immigration, Nasrine ends up in Newcastle, where she and Ali try to fit in to their new life and norms. Nasrine soon begins to make friends and finds it easier to fit than Ali, who now has problems of his own...

The film tries to bring out the courage needed to change countries, showing how difficult and sad it can be.

Critics

as warm to its characters as it is observant about the two worlds they live in. As a coming-of-age tale it allows for hope as well as despair and has a particularly fine performance from Micsha Sadeghi as the indomitable Nasrine Derek Malcolm, Evening Standard